Gone

Abstract

Gone is a painting that comments on depression and shows it in a more uncommon way than how depression is usually described. Normally when you think of depression, you imagine someone isolated in a darkened room. They spend their days in bed with no energy to bathe, eat, or go to school/work. While this is one way depression can manifest, it is not the only way. In some cases, a depressed person may still go out with friends, be very productive at work or school and just generally look like a completely normal person with no mental illness. This is the side of depression that I illustrate in Gone. The struggling woman is on a walk at a park on a beautiful day with a scene of cherry blossoms floating down from the trees. Others on the trail are filled with bright colors or happiness from the view.  To the others, she seems like a normal woman enjoying the park just like them, but the viewer can see that she is still sad. Another important detail in Gone is the color of the trail and the color of the struggling woman. The two colors are very similar to give the effect of the struggling woman disappearing into the trail in certain lighting. This is to comment on the dissociation someone with depression may experience. The physically being in the room but feeling like the mind and body is elsewhere.